Drug addiction is real threat to Russia

Drug addiction has become a problem of national scope, posing a real threat to Russia. This conclusion is made in a report of the public council for external and defense policy, which was tabled on Tuesday at the Press Development Institute. The report says that in 2001 there's not one region of Russia without registered cases of narcotics spread or consumption. Even the roughest estimate of drugs-related losses has exceeded 5 billion roubles in the last two years, says the report. Moral damage defies calculation. As of early 2001, over 2.2 million Russian citizens consume narcotics regularly and there are all grounds to believes that in 1.5 to two years this number will top three million. More and more heavy drugs are taken. Authors of the report stress that drug addition goes on getting younger in Russia: over 60 percent of drug addicts are aged between 16 and 30 years. In about 85 percent of Moscow schools drugs can be bought freely. Cases of 6-7-year-old children taking drugs are registered, particularly, in Moscow.

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